Discussions

in the downtown discussions we have had, talk of tax incentives for building or renovating have been discussed. Here's portions of an article in today's FreeP about what Winnipeg will be doing. I know the situations are somewhat different but it's food for thought.....  
 
Excerpts: WPG Free Press Fri May 4 2007 Bartley Kives  
 
Incentives to breathe new life into city  
Property-tax rebates to build in older areas  
 
 
CITY planners have put the final touches on two pieces of legislation aimed at revitalizing downtown Winnipeg and other older neighbourhoods.  
 
In plain English, the city will soon offer a 75 per cent tax rebate on city property taxes to anyone who builds a new home on a vacant lot -- or knocks down an old or derelict building and replaces it with new housing.  
 
The infill-housing incentive expected today will provide property-tax rebates worth up to $10,000 ($2,000 a year for five years) to anyone who builds a new home, apartment building or condo complex in an existing Winnipeg neighbourhood.  
 
Vacant lots in undeveloped areas of the city are not eligible for the 75 per cent tax rebate. Neither are home renovations that don't involve demolition and reconstruction.  
 
The city will also broaden the property-tax rebates already offered to developers who build new apartment buildings and condominiums -- and for the first time, mixed-use developments -- particularly in downtown Winnipeg.  
 
But downtown-revitalization advocates have been clamouring for even more powerful legislative tools, such as tax-incentive financing zones, which allow property owners who make improvements to avoid getting penalized by higher property taxes.  
 
The idea of the property-tax rebate is to create more density in neighbourhoods that don't need new roads, sewers or anything else that requires the city to pony up more infrastructure cash.  
 
The multi-family dwelling grant program, meanwhile, allows developers to recover the cost of building new apartments and condos in the form of property-tax rebates.Under the existing program, developers can claim a maximum of $250,000 per building over six years.  
 
But the mechanism has been retooled to make room for mixed-use developments -- that is, buildings with a mix of residential, retail and commercial -- and offer a larger pool of rebate money for downtown projects, versus the rest of the city.